Improvement in car-brakes



J. M. COLLINS. 1 OAR BRAKE.

$10, 16,642. Patented Mar. '7, 1865.

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Nrrnn STATES ATENT OFrIcE.

J. M. COLLINS, OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-BRAKES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J. M. COLLINS, of New Bedford, in the county ofBristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Brake-Fixtures for Railroad-Oars; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof,which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which Figure 1 is a section of my invention taken inthe line as m, Fig. 3; Fig. 2, an outer view of a shoe-bar with itsheads attached; Fig. 3, a horizontal section of the same taken in theline y 3 Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corres pondin g parts.

This invention relates to a new and -nseful improvement in attaching theshoes of the brake to the brake-heads, and also in attaching the brakebar to the heads, as hereinafter fully shown and descxibed, whereby theshoes are firmly attached to the heads and at'the same time renderedcapable of being readily detached to be replaced by new ones whenrequired, and the brake barandfixtures attached to it rendered moredurable than those as at present constructed.

A represents the shoe-bar, which is constructed of cast-iron, and hasthe upper and lower surfaces near its ends beveled to fit into dovetailsockets a at the outer sides of cast-iron heads B B. (See moreparticularly Fig.1.) The shoe-bar Ais suspended from the upper part ofthe car-truck by hangers O U, and the heads B B are of curved or segmentform, corresponding to the curvature of the car-wheels. These heads B Bhave each a dovetailgroove, I), made in their face sides, extendingnearly their whole length, and into these grooves dovetail projections cat the rear sides of the shoes D D are fitted, the shoes D Dcorresponding in curvature to the heads B B.

The dovetail projections c of the shoes D D are not quite equal inlength to the dovetailgrooves bin the heads B, and the space above saidprojections are filled by dovetail-plugs E, into which the upper screws,(1. of the hangers G 0 pass and secure said plugs in the grooves. (SeeFig. 1.)

The dovetail-grooves b do not extend down to the lower ends of the headsB B, and the bottoms of the projections 0 rest upon the bottoms of saidgrooves, the plugs E preventing any upward movement of the shoes, which,like the heads B, are of cast iron.

The shoebar A is retained in the sockets a. by bolts 0, the heads fofwhich ofarc dovetail form and are within the dovetail-grooves b, asshown clearlyin Fig. :4, and itwill be seen by reference to this figurethat by screwing up the nuts of these bolts the d0vetail heads f willdraw back the dovetail projections act the shoes firmly in the grooves bof the heads, thereby preventing any forward and backward play ormovement of the same.

The whole arrangement is extremely simple and efficient, and forms avery durable brakefixture.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent? 1. The mode ofsecuring the shoes D D to the heads B B b, means of the dovetailprojections c on the shoes fitted in the dovetailgrooves bin the headswhen combined with the dovetail-plugs E and the bolts 6, provided withthe dovetail-heads f, all arranged as set forth.

2. The cast-iron shoe-bar A, when attached or fitted to the heads B B,when constructed in the manner substantially as herein shown anddescribed.

.J. M. COLLINS.

Witnesses:

W. H. COBB, WM. W. ORAPo.

